Apprentice Engineer Review

Currently I am based in Edenbridge, Kent on Little Brown's cutting. As a Civil Engineer apprentice, everyday is different. My daily tasks could involve setting out, monitoring, measuring whilst out on site and completing work package plans, close calls and giving site inductions whist in the office. On a daily basis, I liaise with the quantity surveyor and agent, whilst being mentored and taught various different skills by the site engineer. As well as this, I work with sub contractors, whether it be setting out for excavation or for nailing activities. In the short time I have had on site, I have developed a great deal of responsibility and I am trusted to go onto site by myself and perform setting out tasks and monitoring progress of works by taking various measurements all around site using the total station.

Before I started on site, I was very nervous as to whether I would struggle to grasp concepts of engineering. For the first couple of weeks, what the site engineer was showing and explaining to me seemed to very complicated. However, as time went on I started to understand how to do things more and more until the point where I can now set out by myself whilst the site engineer gets on with office duties. I have learned that there is a lot more to engineering than just setting out as I have also been involved in the design of the job and financial matters. I feel this will benefit me in the future as having a flexibility of roles will only enhance my performance and career development.

During the first 3 months of the programme, my colleagues and I were based in Leeds, completing a level 3 qualification. To be perfectly honest, before I started I felt this was pointless as I already had a level 3 qualification from studying at Sixth Form. However, having now completed the qualification in Leeds, I feel satisfied that it was not a waste of time. Having now been on site for a while, I can safely say that gaining site experience has been fantastic and something I prefer over being at college. Overall, I am really enjoying the programme and do not regret choosing this pathway over university.

The assessment day gave the immediate impression that the programme is well organised as the dates for our first college block and first site placement were given to us on the day so we knew what to expect and when to expect to it. Then, during the college block, we had regular visits from the apprenticeship team in which updates and important information was given to us. So in that sense, it was well organised. However, the most disappointing thing was that we only found out our site placements on the last week of college after being told we would find out several weeks beforehand. Although we were told they could not reveal site placements until they knew everyone's, it was not helpful to many people as they would be living away from home and had to make living arrangements in a short amount of time. Although, in the end this was not a problem for me as I got a site near to home, the prospect of not knowing whether I would be able to live at home for so long was frustrating.

My line manager on site has offered me great support and made sure that I am well looked after and being taught in the right way in order to develop my skills. Also, the site engineer has played a pivotal role in helping me develop my skills and has stayed incredibly patient as times when I am struggling and has never been too busy to help me with anything. Everyone on site has made me feel welcome from the beginning and I am now very much part of this great team. Any issue I have had on site has been dealt with immediately and I have never had any problems with approaching anyone. Overall, I could not speak highly enough of the people I am working with and for on site as I have been treated the same as everyone else and not as an 'apprentice'.

When completing qualifications at college, I found that the support network received very much depended on the tutor. With some tutors, they will make sure that they give you maximum support to help you achieve the highest grades. However, with some tutors, they would give out the bare minimum support and this was a problem at times. Although I achieved a good grade overall, I would have liked a consistent level of support as the workload at times was ridiculous due to there being such a short amount of time to do it in.

The level 3 qualification we have already completed, in my opinion, did not have huge relevance to what is actually like being on site. The methods of doing certain tasks were explained in an old fashioned way in college, which meant that when on site it takes a while to adapt to learning the new way of doing certain things. In terms of health and safety on site, the information we received regarding this was relevant to life on site as it gave an understanding as to how important it is in this industry and that was mirrored when on site. Overall, the level 3 qualification contained a lot of information that hasn't been helpful whilst on site but due to there being some that does it has helped to a certain extent. I assume that the higher level qualification I will complete in the future will be a lot more similar to site work.

To welcome us to BAM, we were taken out for a meal on our first night in Leeds which was a good way of breaking the ice and allowing everyone to get to know each other a bit better. This was a good idea from BAM as I feel as if it helped everyone to relax and settle into their new surroundings and feel more comfortable. Also, we were entered into a 5 a side football league that we looked forward to doing every Wednesday at a local goals centre. This helped break up the week and was a good way of relieving the stress of the college work.

Yes

BAM Nuttall is a prestigious company within the industry and being rated 3rd for apprenticeships in the top 100 of some fantastic companies speaks for itself in terms of what people who complete the programme think of it. You are well looked after throughout your time and are always made to feel welcome. In addition, the pay and benefits you receive are reasonably good for an apprenticeship and the money increases every year.

On the assessment day, go in with huge amounts of enthusiasm and get involved with everything you can as this will help show your personality and that is what the employers are mainly looking for. Also, try and have some background knowledge of BAM as a company and their values and what they believe in as this will show your willingness to learn about the company and a genuine interest.